for the active Christian

In the UK, the Christian Medical Fellowship is holding the Life and Death Matters conference to be held on July 2. In WA and Tasmania the Green Party is pushing for euthanasia laws. The campaign has also been taken up the West Australian which last Saturday ran a story on an ill person who wanted the die.

Have your say: the time to give your final say on whether you believe a human rights charter or bill is good for Australia is almost over. The Consultation Committee received more than 35000 written submissions and will give their report August 31, 2009.

The campaign against the Charter is now shifting to the Federal Parliament, which will have to pass the Charter. In its submission, the ACL called for the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee’s mandate to be strengthened to examine proposed and existing legislation against accepted international human rights instruments and legislated human rights standards.

Action: The Association for Reformed Political Action is asking people to sign a petition which will be handed in to federal parliament. (see attached petition) Ensure that the petition is on the top of each page for it to be valid. ARPA has also sent in a submission to the Consultation Committee (see attached).

The Australian Electoral Commission has been seeking comments relating to formation of a new party, The Australian Sex Party. If you believe that the party should not be registered because under the Electoral Act the party does not meet the eligibility criteria for registration, or the party’s application has not been correctly made, or the party’s name and/or abbreviation are prohibited you may lodge an objection to the AEC by July 17. For more info go to http://www.aec.gov.au.

The Party is supported by the Australian adult industry trade group, Eros Association.

Last Saturday almost 90 people attended an Indian dinner at the Free Reformed Church of Southern River to raise funds for the New Hope Orphanage in West Timor. More than $5000 was raised. In July a group from across Australia will be going there for two weeks to work at the Orphanage.

This Sunday 8-9pm, June 28, Evensong on Heritage 107.3FM has a special guest from the Have a Cuppa group. Michael Dykstra will outline the various Christian outreach programs occurring in the Armadale region of Perth. It is also possible to listen online at heritagefm.net. Evensong is a Christian music radio program playing a mixture of contemporary and traditional music every Sunday night.

The Minister for Child Protection Robyn McSweeney reports that 1000 people have called the Govt hotline as potential foster carers. There is a critical shortage of carers. For more: telephone the foster care hotline on 1800 024 453 or visit the department’s website at http://www.childprotection.wa.gov.au

Efforts are growing to lobby the State Government to change the prostitution laws. Elements of the Liberal Party, such as Peter Abetz have already indicated that they are keen to see the laws introduced by the Labor Government removed in favour of the Swedish model which criminalises the purchaser of sex and helps women to escape prostitution. In order for these MPs to get support from their colleagues it needs to be demonstrated that there is a desire in the community to change these laws.

Action: The Australian Christian Lobby is asking people to phone, write or email, the focus at this stage being on their Liberal MPs showing their support for a change in the prostitution laws. The letters should be addressed to MPs that both support change (in order to help them reinforce their arguments in the party room) and to those opposed to changing the Prostitution Laws. Bring forward the following points:

– In the pre-election campaign, you promised to repeal Labour’s law and replace it. When will this be done?

– Legalisation of prostitution is not the answer. Legalization has failed in Australia and all over the world.

– Please consider the Swedish law which criminalizes the purchaser of sex and helps women to escape prostitution.

Let the ACL know once you have provided your advice to your Liberal Party MP by emailing waoffice@acl.org.au or call 9221 0655.

If you are interested in receiving alerts on news of note to Christians, where you can engage with talk back radio, the print and internet media contact the ACL in WA on waoffice@acl.org.au or call 9221 0655.

In Senate estimates last week, AusAid officials were asked by QLD Senator Ron Boswell how much money would be spent on abortions, abortion promotions or related services in third-world countries but were unable to give an answer.

“Australia needs to know how much money goes to which overseas countries for abortion related services under new AUSAID guidelines,” Senator Ron Boswell said in a media release.

1.Re-state your opposition to our aid dollars being diverted from maternal health and poverty relief to abortion
2. Ask him to tell you whether or not the AusAid guidelines will allow the use of our aid money for sex selection abortion